The Rangers have had a concerning start to the season

The New York Rangers avoided making history on Monday night, when Artemi Panarin’s goal at 0:57 of the first period ensured that they would not break the record for longest scoring drought to open a season on home ice by time. They’d already become the first team to go three full games scoreless at home to kick off a year.

Unfortunately for New York, that was the only goal they’d score on Monday, as the Minnesota Wild rallied for a 3-1 win that sent the Rangers to a 3-4-1 record in their first season under new head coach Mike Sullivan.

Sullivan has New York playing good hockey, as their numbers look quite strong under the hood, but a lack of finishing has prevented them from converting that solid play into points in the standings.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss whether the Rangers or the Boston Bruins have had the most concerning start to the season relative to their preseason expectations.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Which one are you more concerned about at this point, the Rangers or the Bruins, the two kind of big bounce-back teams in the East?

Carter Hutton: I think I’m still more worried about the Rangers. The Bruins are worrisome because they’ve given up a lot of picks, and they are who they are at this point… it’s more the Rangers were supposed to be good, so it’s been more disappointing I think because of the lack of offense. Again last night, they finally got their first goal on home ice against Minnesota, but it’s been thoroughly disappointing with the captaincy change and with Mike Sullivan coming in as the head coach. I guess I felt like there’d be a better response from this team with new leadership. I think the early lack of offense, lack of creativity in the lineup is concerning.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…